In medical science the roll of eminent names is long and impressive, from Bannerman, who was physician to David II, down to Arthur Johnston, who after an academic career abroad, cultivated the muses at Aberdeen, gaining fame as a writer of Latin verse. He was for some time physician to Charles I. Born at Caskieben in 1587, he was rector of King’s College in 1637, and died in 1641. Dr John Arbuthnot, though a native of Kincardineshire, was a student at Marischal College; as the friend of Pope and Swift, and the wit and physician at the Court of Queen Anne, he is likely to be remembered. Another celebrated physician was Dr John Abercrombie, who, born in Aberdeen, went to Edinburgh, and became head of the profession and first physician to the king in 1824. Others no less noted were Sir James Clark; Sir Andrew Clark; Neil Arnott, a contemporary with Byron at the Grammar School, and more famous as natural philosopher than as physician, devising skilful inventions in healing and ventilation; Sir James Macgrigor, to whose memory a lofty obelisk in polished red granite was erected in Marischal College quadrangle. After standing there for years it was recently removed to the Duthie Park. Macgrigor was a pioneer in the humanitarian treatment of the sick and wounded in war, and was chief of the Medical Staff in the Peninsular campaigns.
In natural science William Macgillivray is known by his careful and authoritative work on the _History of British Birds_. James Clerk Maxwell, who did so much for the advancement of modern Physics, was for a few years professor of Natural Philosophy in Marischal College. Dr Alexander Forsyth, minister of Belhelvie, invented the percussion lock, and Patrick Ferguson, a native of Pitfour, invented the breech-loading rifle.
The county is remarkable for families with pronounced hereditary intellectual gifts. The most noted case is that of the Gregories, who sprang from John Gregory, minister of Drumoak. It has produced fourteen Professors in British universities, skilled in Mathematics, Astronomy, Chemistry and Medicine. One of them was the inventor of the reflecting telescope. The Reids, the Fordyces, the Johnstons are other cases less remarkable, but still exceptional.
Philosophy is a sphere in which the Aberdonian has left his mark. The greatest local name in this regard is that of Thomas Reid, who created the Scottish school in opposition to David Hume, and whose _Inquiry into the Human Mind on the principles of Common Sense_ was written while he was a Professor at King’s College. Born at Strachan on the south side of the Dee, he was for a time parish minister of New Machar. Later he migrated in 1763 to Glasgow, as successor to Adam Smith. His _Intellectual and Active Powers_ was written after his retirement in 1780. Other philosophical writers worthy of mention are, Dr George Campbell, who, besides his dissertation on _Miracles_, wrote a _Philosophy of Rhetoric_; Dr James Beattie, whose _Minstrel_ is still read and whose _Essay on Truth_ had a great contemporary reputation; Dr Alexander Bain, an analytical psychologist, whose books _The Senses and the Intellect_ and _The Emotions and the Will_ contain the most complete analytical exposition of the mind. Bain was the first Professor of Logic at Aberdeen, and in conjunction with his pupil Croom Robertson started the philosophical Review called _Mind_.
Professor Thomas Reid, D.D.
The sphere of imaginative literature is not the Aberdonian’s sphere. Criticism, Philosophy, History, Science are more in his way, and yet a few names can be given as of some note in pure literature. Foremost in time and unrivalled in his own department is Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen (1357). He studied at Oxford, and was contemporary with Wycliffe and Chaucer. His great work is _The Brus_, the most national of all Scottish poems. It is instinct with the spirit of freedom, of chivalry and romance, and details the struggles, the perils, and the marvellous escapes of his hero Robert the Bruce, with great simplicity, vividness, and directness. Alongside of him we may place John Skinner, author of _Tullochgorum_, _The Ewie wi’ the Crookit Horn_, and other well-known songs. A native of Birse and for long episcopal minister at Longside, he was the father of Bishop Skinner. His fame rests on _Tullochgorum_, which Burns pronounced to be the best of Scotch songs. Dr W. C. Smith, the author of _Olrig Grange_ and _Borland Hall_, was born and educated in Aberdeen. Dr George Macdonald, poet, novelist, and critic, author of _Alec Forbes_ and other novels embodying local colour and illustrating Aberdeenshire life and dialect in the early part of last century, was a native of Huntly. The best known poet connected with Aberdeen is Byron, who spent some years of his boyhood in the city and short periods of the summer on Deeside. These visits to Ballater are reflected in his poem on Loch-na-gar and elsewhere in his work. He left Aberdeen at the age of 10 in 1798 and never saw it again.
History is a subject that has appealed to Aberdonians. Dr David Masson’s monumental work on Milton must be mentioned. Other historians are Joseph Robertson, John Stuart, John Hill Burton, Bishop Burnet, who wrote the _History of his Own Time_, Sir John Skene, and Robert Gordon of Straloch, antiquarian and map-maker, as well as his son James, minister of Rothiemay and historian of the early years of the Troubles. The first Principal of the University, Hector Boece, wrote histories somewhat credulous and imaginative but quite authoritative where his own times are concerned.
Of painters connected with the district may be mentioned Jamesone, Dyce, and Phillip called “of Spain” from his success with Spanish subjects. Architecture claims Gibbs, whose Radcliffe Library at Oxford, and London churches such as St Martin’s-in-the-Fields, still stand a testimony to his art; the Smiths and Archibald Simpson have already been mentioned. Sculpture owns the two Brodies and Sir John Steell.
Scholars like Wedderburn and Ruddiman, Cruden of _Concordance_ reputation, Dr James Legge, the Orientalist, and Professor Robertson Smith, born in the Donside parish of Keig, editor of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, Professor of Arabic at Cambridge, and one of the most learned pundits of his time—are but a few representatives of a long list.